


Safe Harbour

by theScrap_Witch



Series: Quests and Questions [2]
Category: Linked Universe - Fandom, The Legend of Zelda & Related Fandoms
Genre: Gen, slight Spirit Tracks references
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-23
Updated: 2020-06-23
Packaged: 2021-03-03 20:32:59
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,174
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24881611
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/theScrap_Witch/pseuds/theScrap_Witch
Summary: Tetra didn't wait or worry about Link. She knew he'd be back, eventually. So when he and the other eight Links drop into her world, she's not surprised. She just wished her Link could have arrived a day later.But he's there, and she had answers to find. Even if that meant visiting a place both of them would rather forget.How do you build a new future, when the past laid so heavy on your heart?
Relationships: Link & Tetra
Series: Quests and Questions [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1864564
Comments: 24
Kudos: 244





	Safe Harbour

Tetra didn’t wait for Link to come back. 

Linebeck had blubbered out the whole story. Strangers, worlds, adventures, blah, blah, blah. She understood the gist of it. Link was off playing hero - again - because he was an idiot that way. 

She wasn’t worried. Loyalty had never been something he’d lacked. He’d be back eventually, as long as he didn’t get himself killed. 

(He better not get himself killed.)

But she wasn’t going to sit on Outset Island beach and do nothing while he was gone. She had a future to fight for. A land to find. A new adventure for her and her pirate crew. Pirates hunted for treasure, after all, and this new land would be the grandest one they’d ever find. 

“What about here?” asked Nudge. The two of them were studying a new sea chart. He pointed to a small scrap of land, only a little bigger than Headstone Island. 

She shook her head. “Too small,” she said. 

“Its bigger than the other islands we’ve found.”

“We don’t want islands,” said Tetra. “This land needs to be bigger than that. Bigger than anything we’ve got on the Great Sea.”

“Aye, Miss Tetra. We’ll keep looking, then.” He folded up the sea chart. “We can head to Dragon Roost Island. See if there’s a Rito there who’s seen something.”

“We’ll do that after tomorrow’s stop.”

“Miss Tetra…” Nudge gave her a look of concern. “We don’t have to go there again. We’re at Four Eye Reef now. Won’t take us long to turn east and sail to Dragon Roost.”

“I’m not a coward,” she snapped back. 

“It ain’t that. None of us here would ever think that, and we’d bash the teeth out of whoever said so.”

Tetra sighed, forced her temper down. She relied on Nudge’s council, on his honesty with her. “I know you’re all worried, but there’s nothing on that scrap of rock that can hurt me now. I have to do this, Nudge.”

“But why?” he asked. 

She couldn’t explain, not to him, not to any of her crew. Why go back to a place she hated? Why do any of this at all? 

Sometimes, she wished she could turn into a ship, like the King of Hyrule had. Sail away from all her problems and responsibilities to a sea cave or a quiet island. A safe harbour. 

(Her mother had called her that. “You’re my safe harbour, Tetra,” she’s said, sick with fever. Tetra still didn’t understand what that meant.)

Shouting from the crow’s nest interrupted their talk. “Miss Tetra! Miss Tetra!” 

“What?” she yelled back, looking up to where Zuko and Niko stood. 

“Zuko spotted something up ahead!” Niko yelled back. “In the water!”

“It better not be a damn whale.” After everything with Oshus, Tetra didn’t want to see another one of those beasts for a long, long time. 

“Not a whale, captain, and not a monster either! People!”

Were they shipwrecked? Tetra turned to where Gonzo was at the wheel. “Steer us to ‘em. Senza! Get a lifeboat ready. We’ll bring them here.”

“Rescue, Miss Tetra?” said Nudge, raising an eyebrow. 

“Not for free,” said Tetra. She was still a pirate, after all. “Niko! How many are there?”

“Nine, Miss Tetra! Nine, and - and one of them looks like Link!”

She couldn’t stop herself from laughing. “Then we’ll make him pay double for this rescue. Now, hurry up and bring them all aboard!” 

***

Tetra stayed back while the Links were brought onto the ship. She wanted to study them first before introducing herself. 

(She wanted to make her Link look for her.)

Their armour was soaked with seawater, and she was amazed that none of them had drowned. Her Link was in the middle, talking fast, arms waving in the air as he gestured and pointed. A whirlwind of energy. He hadn’t changed. Good. 

The eight others were a strange sight. Older, though one of them was shorter than her Link. Each of them had a weird nickname they introduced themselves by. 

(Each of them had a Zelda, and that thought sat like a stone in her stomach)

Link - Wind, one of the others called him - was still talking. Still hadn’t asked for her. Tetra took a dagger form her belt and sent it flying. It imbedded itself on the deck, right by Wind’s feet. All heads turned to her, some of the other Links grabbing their weapons. 

Not hers. He turned and smiled. “Hey Tetra,” he said, like they hadn’t spent the last few months apart. 

_Stupid sunshine boy_ , she thought, unable to stop herself from smiling back. “Hey.”

“A friend of yours?” asked Time. 

Wind nodded. “My best friend.”

“You must be this world’s Princess Zelda,” said the one called Sky. 

“Pirate,” corrected Tetra, trying to ignore the way that name made her heart burn. “Not princess. My name is Tetra. You can address me as ‘captain’, seeing as this is my ship you’re all on.”

“Wonderful,” muttered the pink-haired one. Legend. “Let’s put a ten year old in charge of a bunch of pirates. What could possibly go wrong?”

“Watch your mouth,” said Gonzo, always ready to defend her. “Miss Tetra’s the best captain there is, just as good as her mother was.” Both the comparison and her crew’s loyalty filled Tetra with pride.

“Tetra’s ship can take us anywhere on the Great Sea,” added Wind. 

She rolled her eyes. “Yeah, anywhere I want to go.”

Wild, the one with burn scars on his face, gazed around at the open water surrounding them. “Could you take us to Hyrule?” he asked.

The name ripped into her. It made her think of ruins, mad laughter, a silk dress so ornate it burned her skin. It filled her head with memories she wished she could forget. 

“No,” she snapped back. “We’ve got another stop in mind, and if you’re still around after that we’ll head to Outset Island.” 

“Why not?”

“‘Cause I said so.” Wind hasn’t told them, she thought. One part of her was glad. Why give up all their secrets to strangers? But Wind only lied when he didn’t want someone to worry. That idiot. He cared about them. How many people could he fit in that dumb heart of his? “Gonzo, put these newcomers to work.” She stomped back to her cabin, dragging Wind behind her, before anyone could ask her another stupid question. 

***

Now it was just the two of them. Alone, in her cabin. Together, for the first time in months. 

Tetra suddenly had no idea what to say. 

Neither did Wind. They stared at each other, both of them unsure. Shy. Both of them comparing their memories of each other to what was now in front of their eyes. 

Wind broke the silence first. “I missed you,” he said, a soft confession. 

“You idiot,” she said, and it shook her how dangerously close to crying she felt. “I should punch you in the face for disappearing like that.” 

“Sorry. I didn’t mean to make you worry.”

“I wasn’t - Ugh!” Damn it all, the others weren’t there. She hugged him. Her heart felt too much for words. 

Wind hugged her back. He didn’t smell like the sea anymore, and he had a new scar under his left ear, but he was still himself.

(He was still her Link.)

It scared her, how much she missed him. It wasn’t that she needed him, it was that she wanted him beside her. Before, she could understand needing people. A ship needed a captain. A pirate captain needed a crew. An island needed villagers. Sure, you could care about them, but that was because you needed them to do things for you. They had a use. 

Wind’s use was done. Evil defeated, king put to rest, ocean god free. There was no reason not to dump Wind on Outset Island. No reason to keep Aryll’s drawings on her cabin wall, no reason to send rupees to Wind’s Granny and make sure she was being cared for. No reason, except that she wanted to. 

It wasn’t even greed, which, to a pirate, was an understandable, acceptable sort of want. 

It was just her heart. Wanting. For no reason.   
  
She stepped away, ending the hug. Casually checked the mirror on her cabin wall to make sure there weren’t any tears. “So…find any treasure on your adventure?”

“A few trinkets,” he said, rubbing his face. She wasn’t the only one who didn’t want to be caught crying. 

“I want them.”

That made him laugh. “You haven’t changed, Tetra.”

“I want them, and I want to know what trouble you’ve been getting into without me.”

“I’ll tell you everything,” said Wind, “but you’ve got to tell me what you’ve been doing too. Where are you headed?” 

Tetra wished she could give him a different answer, wished he could have arrived a day later and skip what tomorrow would bring. “The Forsaken Fortress,” she said. 

She was glad they were in her cabin, so that none of the others could see his face go grey.

“What do you need from there?” he asked. She can hear the real question under his words. _Why? Why? Why?_

“I’m looking for something,” she told him. “You can stay behind on the ship if you want. Keep Niko from causing trouble.” 

He shook his head. “I’ll come too,” he said. He took a deep breath and said the words again with more force. “I’ll come too.”

 _You don’t have to be brave all the time_ , she wanted to say, but she knew he wouldn’t believe her. 

(And deep down, even though it was terrible, she was glad that he’d be coming too)

***

They wouldn’t reach the Forsaken Fortress until morning, so Tetra pushed it all aside to focus on her new guests and crew.

Wind went up to the crow's nest with Niko. The swabbie had started creating paper cut-outs and was excited to show them off. 

Mako talked to Four about some invention he was dreaming up. Something involving gears and steam, a giant sort of machine to cross land, like a boat on wheels. She rolled her eyes. Mako was smart, but that idea seemed impossible to her. 

Legend kept himself firmly in the middle of the ship, far from the edges. 

“Afraid you’ll fall overboard?” Warriors teased. Tetra didn’t hear the pink-haired hero’s reply. 

Sky sat quietly at Legend’s side, whittling something from a piece of driftwood Zuko had given him. 

Wild was arguing with Nudge about food. “What do you mean you don’t have any salt?” she heard him wail. 

Twilight and Hyrule were with Senza, listening to his stories about the Great Sea. He was telling one about Tetra’s mother and her duel with a Rito warrior. 

Time stood to the side, up near where Gonzo was steering the ship. He watched them all - pirates and Links - with his one good eye. 

He caught her staring at him. “Something wrong, Princess Zelda?” asked Time.

“Tetra,” she corrected. 

“Sorry," he said. "Old habit.” 

“All of them seem to call their Zeldas' princess,” said Gonzo. “Should we be calling you princess now too, captain?” 

“You fucking well better not.”

“Language,” corrected Time.

“Fuck you,” Tetra snapped back. 

Time shook his head, bemused. “Sorry. Another habit. I suppose you’re to blame for Wind’s bad language?” 

“I’m to blame for a lot of things,” she said. She wanted to give him a smug smile. Make a joke. Swear again. But all she could see was the painting in her cabin, a small boy in green. The Hero from long ago, from all her mother’s stories. 

(Was it your fault? Were you the hero that failed to show up? Was it all your fault that the gods drowned my world? If you were supposed to be so great and brave, why didn’t you do anything?)

(She wasn’t brave enough to ask)

It wasn’t long before that peaceful afternoon turned to night, the stars as bright as silver rupees. Wild made dinner, which was so good Tetra almost asked if he’d be interested in joining her crew when his adventure was over. 

“How’d you make this?” asked Niko in awe.

“I used salt,” answered Wild, looking ready to tear out his hair. 

Gonzo broke out the best ale, claiming it was to celebrate finding Wind. Tetra knew better. _He wants to make sure Wind and I sleep tonight,_ she thought, resisting the urge to roll her eyes. He knew how much she and Wind were both dreading the Fortress. _Nothing like alcohol to relax your brain._

Twilight tried to stop him from pouring Tetra and Wind a mug. “They’re children,” he said, like that should make a difference. 

“So? They’ve had it before.”

Tetra grabbed the mugs before any more arguments could be made. “My ship, my rules,” she said. She handed one to Wind, who gave her a wicked grin.

“To fair weather sailing,” he said, raising his mug to toast.

“To lots of treasure,” she said back, copying him. 

They clanged their mugs together, and, knowing damn well Twilight’s eyes were on them, gulped down the ale. 

“Another!” yelled Wind.

Tetra threw back her head and laughed. 

(Tomorrow would be hell, but tonight she would let her heart sing)

***  
The next morning, the sky was a bloody red when they reached their destination. 

Tetra was the first to leave the ship, Wind barely a step behind her. They faced the Fortress the same way they faced Ganon: shoulder to shoulder.

“What is this place?” asked Hyrule. “A dungeon?”

“Sorta,” said Wind. 

“Be on your guard,” ordered Tetra. “We don’t know what monsters might still be lurking inside.”

No turning back now, she thought, and in through the gates they all went. 

The Links and her crew spread out, exploring what remained of the Forsaken Fortress. Wind stuck to Tetra’s side, like he was worried the Helmaroc King would swoop down and try to capture her again. None of the spotlights were working, but Tetra still kept an eye out for hiding spots. Wind did the same. She saw the way his eyes flickered for ledges to crouch behind, barrels to shield himself in. 

(He didn’t notice the other Links watching him, watching both of them, concerned. One of them was always nearby, hovering a few steps behind him.)

( _They loved Wind as much as he loved them_ , thought Tetra. _Good._ )

Up and up she walked, Wind never leaving her side. It was only when they stepped through a giant set of wooden doors that she stopped. Beside her, Wind took in a long, shaky breath. 

There was a cage in the room. A large, very familiar cage. 

Tetra and Wind walked up to it, pulled to it almost against their will.

Legend came up beside them, icy blue eyes on the cage. “Why,” he said, “does Ganon always decorate his lairs with cages?”

“How’d you know this place used to be Ganon’s?” asked Tetra. 

He rolled his eyes. “Because I’ve been in enough of his dungeons to recognize which ones are his. Or were his. Kid said he defeated him, right Wind?”

“We defeated him,” said Tetra.

Wind was silent, and Legend’s eyes flickered to him, worry making them sharper. He nudged Wind in the side. “Well?”

Wind blinked, broken from his memories. “Huh?”

“Well, what creature was it?” Legend gestured at the cage. “Something this big could hold a decent sized monster. What did Ganon keep in here? Moblins? Octorocks? A flock of cucoos?”

“Little girls,” said Tetra.

“My sister,” said Wind. 

Legend ran a hand through his hair and let out a long side. “More children. Of course. That fucking pig.”

Tetra was ready to tell Legend to fuck off, but Wind kept talking. He rambled, like if he talked fast enough he could keep the bad memories away. “She’s very brave. Aryll, my sister. She was here for so long but she never stopped being brave. The seagulls helped me find her.”

“Seagulls?” repeated Legend. 

“Yeah.” Wind pointed to the window. “They found her and looked after her before I came. They live with her and Granny on Outset Island now. Aryll spoils them, especially Marin.”

“Who?”

“One of the seagulls.” Wind kept talking, not noticing the odd expression on Legend’s face. “There’s three of them. Ben, who likes to nap all day, Flipper, who steals sea shells, and Marin, who keeps red flowers in her nest and sings really pretty.”

“I didn’t know seagulls could sing,” said Tetra, still watching Legend out of the corner of her eye. 

“Neither did I,” said Wind. “But Marin is special, I guess. She sang every day to Aryll when the Ganon and the Helmaroc King kept her locked up in here. She’s very kind.” 

“She is,” agreed Legend, and Tetra felt that, if she and Wind weren’t there, he would have started crying. “I’m glad your sister is taking care of h- them.” 

“They’re good birds,” said Wind. “I’ll introduce you to them when we visit my island.”

That seemed to overwhelm Legend. Without another word he turned around and walked away. 

“Did I say something wrong?” asked Wind. 

“No,” said Tetra. “Your friend’s just weird.”

But that meant they were alone now, and could do the worst part together. 

“Ready to go up?” she asked, gesturing to the ramp. His eyes followed the long, spiral path up and up to the top of the fortress, knowing full well what she meant. Knowing what awaited them at the top. 

Wind, pale faced and hand trembling, managed to give her a grin. It was like dawn breaking through a storm. “Lead on, captain,” he said. 

And so, alone and together, up they went. 

***  
The room was smaller than she remembered. Fire damage covered it all: walls, floor, what was left of the roof. 

_Stupid_ , she thought. She forgot the Valoo had torched the place. _How stupid to think I’d find something here._

Wind ran a hand over the burnt walls. “Why,” he asked, “does this room feel a lot scarier now, even though the threat is gone?”

“‘Cause before we didn’t know how bad the monster was,” she answered. “We barely knew anything. Now we know too much.”

(She could feel his hand around her neck. The sting of failure, of rage as he took her necklace. _That’s mine - that was my mother’s - I’ll see a blade in your skull for this you asshole -_ )

(Well. The last part had come true in the end.) 

“He laughs in my dreams,” said Wind, interrupting the memory. 

“Mine too,” she admitted. If it was anyone else, she would have lied. A pirate captain didn’t feel fear after all. Her mother, Tetra remembered, was absolutely fearless. But this was Wind - this was Link - and he was there with her at the bottom of the ocean. He was there with her when the future nearly ended. There could be no lies here. Not in this room. Not between them. 

“Can he really be dead if we remember him so well? Are we sure he’s never going to come back?”

She shrugged. “You met all those other Links. If he doesn’t come back here, he’ll just come back somewhere else.”

“None of them come after me,” he said, a note of hope somehow in his voice. “At least, I don’t think they do. So, maybe Ganon doesn’t come back after us either?”

“Maybe,” she said, not sure if she believed it. The past seemed to her like a chain she couldn’t get rid of, no matter how much she fought against it. “You're a lot better up here.” 

“I’d rather be in this room than down by the cage,” admitted Wind. 

That made sense. “I’m not surprised.”

“I just…I see her down there,” he said. He had to take a deep breath before continuing. “I had nightmares on your ship, back before I broke into here for the first time. I thought the bird might have eaten her. It was huge! I thought…I thought I’d get here and find nothing but a pile of bones.” 

His words squeezed her heart. “I’ve been…afraid to find that too.”

“Bones?”

She nodded.

“Of other girls?”

She nodded again. “A lot were taken before Aryll. A lot are still missing.” Because they had blonde hair. Because Ganon was looking for a Zelda.

(For her.) 

“Why are we here again, Tetra?” asked Wind. “What are you looking for?”

“Answers,” she said. 

“To what?’

She tried to find the words. “I thought maybe Ganon would have left behind a journal or something. A map we don’t have. Some clue to give me answers. There are so many answers I want, Link. Answers to a thousand different things. What land do I need to find? Does any actually exist? Will people want to live there? What if other people are already living there? Will I just be like Ganon, then, conquering another person’s home out of envy and greed? How to I make it as good as it was before? How to I make those in the past proud of me?"

“You don’t have to do this,” said Wind. 

“Yes,” she said, “I do. I promised the king. I promised, and…”

Wind walked closer to her, held onto her hands. “And?”

“He was looking for Zeldas,” she said. “All those girls hurt because he was searching for my family line. For me.”

“That wasn’t your fault,” said Wind. 

“Maybe,” said Tetra, “but I still owe them something.” They never got a future. What else could she do but use hers to build a better one? “I owe them all so much, but I…I wish I didn’t. I don’t want to be Zelda. I don't know how to be Zelda.” 

(She wanted to just be Tetra, but she wasn’t sure who that was anymore)

“Names are hard,” said Wind. “I look at all the others - at Time - and I don’t know how I can ever be like them. If I even want to be like them. It feels like failure if I’m not and failure if I am. I just wish we could be on a boat and sail, just follow the wind, and not worry about promises or kings or the wills of the gods.” He tried to smile, but it came out crooked. “Its a lot.”

“Yeah,” said Tetra. She could’t quite smile right either. "No shit."

“But…” said Wind, “but they also make me proud of my name. All their successes, their failures, everything that is different about them compared to me. So I…I try to think of it like a gift. Because one day, there might be another young boy named Link. Maybe he’ll wear green, and maybe he’ll fight a great evil, and maybe he’ll have a best friend to fight along side him. But I don’t want him to be scared or sad to share the same name as me. I want him to know, somehow, that I’ll be proud of him just for doing his best. Just for being himself. And so, to do that, I'll help you find the new land and protect a new future. That future, built from both the past and from us now, will be my gift to him.” 

“How are you so bright?” she asked, refusing to let herself cry. “What keeps your heart from sinking?”

“You.”

For a moment all the others - Links, pirate crew - are gone. There was no more burnt wood beneath their feet, no sea-salt air around them. It is just him and her and everything that happened at the bottom of the ocean. The battle with evil, yes, but also the light. The hope at the end, that everything would be alright.

Then he grinned. “Race you back down?”

Her heart is suddenly filled with warmth, with sunlight. Safe harbour, she thought. That’s what his damn smile was. That’s what he was. Her safe harbour. Whether the storm was on the sea or in Tetra’s heart.

_Stupid sunshine boy._

She grinned back. “You’re on.” 

Wind's visit will not last forever. The adventure will quickly call him back, forcing him and the other Links to leave. Tetra will be alone with her pirate crew again, until whatever the gods wanted him to do was done. But that was okay. She wasn’t going to wait for or worry about him. 

Maybe one day, she’d let her descendants take the name. One would be called Zelda, and she would be brave and wise and powerful. She could wear the pink dress without feeling weak, she could wear a crown without it feeling like a chain. In the new land, names from the past would carry more pride than punishment.

Maybe one day she’d even feel okay calling herself that name. 

Until then, she could brave the storms, she could face monster attacks. She could fight for the future and keep herself free from the past. 

She knew where her safe harbour was. 


End file.
